Milestones
by amy.werner.794
Summary: A month after the events of "All the Worlds a Stage", Amanda has reason to question whether Lee has changed as much as she'd hoped. Together, they confront issues from their respective pasts. **I apologize for the delay in posting an update, the story is now complete.**
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is the property of Warner Bros. and Shoot The Moon Productions, I enjoy borrowing their characters for entertainment purposes.

For as long as she could remember, Amanda King had prided herself on her interpersonal skills. She'd instinctively found a way to connect with people who crossed her path; she had a knack for figuring out what made them tick. Meeting Lee Stetson had initially challenged her confidence in her ability to read people. He was a mass of contradictions, and as infuriating as he was handsome.

She'd been stubbornly persistent, often exhibiting the patience of a saint, and had ultimately broken through the wall he'd built around his heart. Now, a month after he'd surprised her by initiating their first real kiss, he was pushing her away again. She could have brushed aside the moodiness he'd begun to display a few days ago, but today he'd gone too far, he'd deliberately ditched her in the bullpen and disappeared for the rest of the work day.

Determined to not allow him to backslide emotionally, she'd shown up at his apartment that evening, but she wasn't sure of what to say to him. Their "relationship", although she wasn't completely comfortable with that word, had proceeded at a snail's pace for so long, but that kiss and his subsequent request to court her had changed everything between them. She'd begun to seriously consider that he might care as deeply for her as she did for him. Did she want to jeopardize their potential future together when she could wait and allow his mood to pass?

As she considered that question, hand poised near his doorbell, she was startled when the door suddenly opened.

"Amanda, what are you doing here?" His long frame blocked the doorway, as he stood with his car keys dangling from his left hand.

"Hello, Lee." She smiled at him and took a step backwards without answering his question.

"Hello to you, too." He subconsciously returned her smile, but made no move to allow her entrance to his apartment. "Is something wrong?"

"You tell me," she replied, remaining stubbornly planted in his doorway.

"No problems here, I was on my way out."

"Fine, I'll tag along, we can talk while you drive, where are you going?"

"Out, I… hadn't picked a destination yet, so you may as well come in, we can talk here." He retreated into the apartment, leaving her to follow him in and close the door. "I think I know why you're here. I was hoping that you'd just take the hint and let today pass without making a big deal about it. Is that too much to ask?"

"No." She surprised him by limiting herself to a one word response, as she looked at the half empty scotch glass sitting on the coffee table in front of him. "You shouldn't be drinking and driving, someone could get hurt or worse."

"I'm not drunk; I decided that drinking wouldn't help. Can we get this over with quickly? I'll apologize for ditching you earlier and then maybe you can admit that everyone doesn't necessarily handle these…observances the way you do." He raked a hand through his hair and looked away from her. "You've changed me, admittedly for the better, but we still come from vastly different worlds. You can't expect me to simply embrace this day the way you and your family would. It's a milestone!"

He reached for the glass in front of him, and downed its contents despite his earlier determination not to. She seated herself at the opposite end of his sofa. The expression on his face and his increasingly stiff body language made it clear that he didn't believe her.

" I went out of my way to break down the emotional barriers you put up to keep people at a distance, but I didn't set out to change you…I just wanted to get through to the real you. Is that so wrong?"

"No, but sometimes you go too far, today's a prime example."

"What's wrong with my wanting to quietly celebrate your birthday with you? No big party, just two people marking a special day together." She looked away sadly before continuing. "I didn't mean to push the boundaries of our new…" She briefly hesitated, while chewing on her lower lip and then continued, "I only wanted you to know that you're-"

"A major jerk. I'm sorry; usually I'd be glad to celebrate my birthday with you." He scooted closer to her on the sofa and gently turned her face towards him. "This isn't an ordinary birthday, it's a milestone," he concluded wistfully.

"No it's not; we were born in the same year, so I know that you just turned thirty-six. There's nothing special about that." He backed away from her with an extremely sad look on his face.

"It's no big deal to you, but it is to me, my father never made it to thirty-six. I've made such a mess of my life over the years. Why did I make it, when he didn't?"

He stood up, hung his head, and went to refill his empty glass. The possibility that he might have a valid reason for not celebrating his birthday had never occurred to her. _Why didn't I realize what was bothering him?_ She sat silently while he violently tossed ice into his empty glass. _I couldn't have known, he's told me so little about his parents._ He poured a generous amount of scotch over the cubes, and gazed at her across the room.

"You're being awfully quiet. You don't have a good answer for why someone like me is still around, when a great man like my dad died at thirty-five. They had so much to live for, yet they were gone in seconds, a senseless car accident-"

His voice broke; he took another gulp of the amber liquid, and willed himself to not allow the tears that were stinging his eyes to fall. She desperately wanted to go wrap her arms around him and provide the comforting he hadn't received as a small boy, but she didn't dare to approach him when he was so clearly fighting to keep his emotions in check.

"There are no answers for why some people die young and others don't. It isn't our place to question why we're alive. All that we can do is use the time that we're given to do as much good as we can. You do that every day that you risk your life to make the world a safer place. I think that your parents would be very proud of you."

"What about my personal life? I told you once that I don't choose my lovers particularly well, and that was an understatement. You're the first woman that I've…dated that I wish I could introduce to my folks. The others…they were all… " He scrubbed his hand through his hair as he searched for a polite word to characterize the women he'd dated in the past.

"Bimbos," Amanda volunteered with a quick smile.

"You recognized that even when you and I were still getting to know each other. Why didn't I?"

"You knew it; you simply weren't ready to acknowledge it yet. We all manage to avoid confronting certain aspects of how we're living our lives. We don't have to try and fix a problem if we don't admit that it exists."

"Ah hell, I'm doing it again right now. I'm paid to be observant, but I just noticed now that you didn't bring me a birthday present, not even a cake…you came here to tell me that you don't want to see me outside of work anymore."

"Whoa, you're jumping to conclusions-" Rather than allowing her to speak, he interrupted her while he closed the physical distance between them.

"No, I'm not; you have every reason to dump me. I've treated you so badly over the past few days."

"You've behaved far worse than this in the past, and I didn't give up on you."

"So, you're not angry at me," he replied, his relief was evident on his face.

"I didn't say that, I'm annoyed that you were so quick to shut me out, but if I'm to be completely honest, I'm disappointed in myself too."

"Now, you've gotten me thoroughly confused, what did you do wrong?" He flopped down on the sofa and she once again seated herself at the opposite end.

"I promised myself that if we pursued a romantic relationship, I wouldn't allow us to fall into the same patterns that doomed my marriage." _Why am I telling him this now? He's not Joe, and I'm not who I was back then, besides he's not ready for this kind of conversation._ He slowly and quietly edged closer to her while she sat forlornly; studying her hands as she slowly twisted them in her lap.

"Amanda, please look at me, now you're shutting me out. Talk to me, what patterns are you worried about us falling into?" His confused hazel eyes met her anxious brown eyes.

"Are you sure about this? You don't like to talk about feelings…and relationships."

"Maybe, that's because I was never involved with someone like you before." He gently stroked her cheek and took her hand into his. "I care about you, more deeply than I ever thought was possible. I can't imagine my life without you in it. I believe that we can have a future together, I don't know what it will entail, but I want to talk about it, work towards it. I once asked you to walk with me, and you trusted me enough to do it, now I'm asking you to talk to me."

She smiled at him, eyes glistening, and then melted into his arms. She was finally ready to talk to him openly about her failed marriage. He'd been right after all; his thirty-sixth birthday would be a milestone in both of their lives.


	2. Chapter 2

Saturday, June 14, 1986

Lee was sneaking glances at Amanda, as the pair strolled through Rock Creek Park in companionable silence. While they searched for an ideal spot for their picnic lunch, he was slightly unnerved by her uncharacteristically silent demeanor. Growing tired of carrying the well stocked picnic basket that she had packed, he stopped walking and turned to her.

"I've tried to be patient, but we can't put it off indefinitely." She looked at him with a slightly guilty expression on her face.

"I didn't plan to…it's not really my fault…how could I possibly know that Francine would show up at your apartment the other night while we were talking. She's always had terrible timing-"

"Amanda, I wasn't talking about our delayed conversation."

"You weren't," she practically chirped.

"No, I'm afraid that my left arm is going to end up stretching to be longer than my right one if I don't put this basket down soon. We've got to choose a spot and put down our blanket."

"Oh, I'm sorry; I guess I did get a little carried away when I was loading the basket." She looked around, and then reached out and claimed one handle of the basket. "Under that elm tree over there will be perfect, c'mon." She quickly led the way, and he followed willing to allow her to decide when she was ready to resume their conversation about her failed marriage.

The large tree provided them with shade from the noonday sun, and its location afforded them a great view of their lush green surroundings. Lee couldn't help being pleased that she had chosen a spot that was a discreet distance away from the park's other visitors. They placed the basket on the ground and began to spread out their small blanket. The task completed, she picked up the basket and placed it at the center of the blanket.

"Make yourself comfortable while I spread out our lunch."

Lee seated himself at the base of the tree's trunk, hoping that if he put a little physical distance between them she'd feel more relaxed. He watched as she began spreading carefully wrapped comestibles on their makeshift tabletop. His mouth watered as she began to unwrap an array of tasty treats.

"You brought enough food to feed an army," he marveled.

"I guess I got carried away," she acknowledged ruefully, quickly glancing at him. "When I get stressed out, I usually clean the house, that's what I did Thursday night when I got home from your place. By last night, the house was spotless so I started preparing food for our picnic. Dig in," she encouraged him.

"I don't know where to begin."

His words echoed her thoughts, but she wasn't contemplating the food options she'd spread out between them. He was being far more patient with her than she'd expected him to be. Generally when he had questions that he wanted answered, he didn't let up. She'd piqued his curiosity by mentioning her failed marriage, a topic that she'd studiously avoided discussing with him since Joe's return, and yet he'd made no attempt to push her to elaborate on the topic.

"I don't either."

"There's no rush, we have all afternoon. Sometimes, I like to start by nibbling a little of this and a little of that, we don't have to dive into the main course right off."

He reached out and snagged what he was certain was a homemade biscuit. No one baked as well as Amanda, and he could no longer resist the aromas that the light breeze was carrying in his direction.

"Delicious, as usual, is that potato salad I see there," he questioned hungrily.

"It is," she replied, passing him a plate and fork as she studied his face. "Why are you being so sweet and patient with me?"

"Aren't I always patient with you," he parried, his dimples on full display.

"No, not always," she answered in a neutral voice. "I know you've had questions about my life with Joe, yet you haven't pushed me to answer them. Why is that?"

"It's my turn to be patient. You've had questions about my past since we first met, yet you waited until I was ready to answer them. I know you have more questions and you're still not pushing me for the answers, I really do appreciate that. Some things aren't easy to talk about…"

"…or think about." She finished his sentence, as she often did. "I thought that I'd worked through my feelings about Joe…and our past together, but I hadn't…not fully. I've been doing a lot of thinking since the other night, and I've faced some difficult truths." She picked at the biscuit that she'd placed on her plate, but she wasn't actually eating it.

"Amanda, we don't have to discuss this now if you're not ready, like I said earlier, it's my turn to be the patient one."

"He was never good at taking turns." She took a healthy bite of the torn up biscuit.

"Joe?" Maybe, she was ready to talk to him, he hoped so, but he was determined to allow her to set the pace of their conversation.

"Yes, he's a good man, but he's set in his ways, always was. He tends to see things from one point of view, his own. I didn't see it when I first him. We met at a party during my sophomore year at UVA…he was studying law at Georgetown, but you know that from last year…and it's in my Agency file."

"Do you want to talk about what isn't in the file?" He inwardly kicked himself as she quickly looked away from him. "I'm sorry, ignore that question, we don't have to talk about this now."

"I want to." He eyed her skeptically and cocked his head. "Don't look at me that way. I do want to talk to you…I think talking about this out loud might help. I can't talk to Mother about this, maybe I'm selling her short, but I don't think she'd understand. Life was so different when she and Daddy met, the country was a different place…1968 changed everything for our generation."

"That's an understatement!"

"Suddenly, anything seemed possible; my whole life was ahead of me. I was living in the sorority house, away from Mother and Daddy for the first time. All the rules I'd grown up believing in were being challenged on a daily basis. I was torn between hanging on to my parents' values and exploring all the changing mores that were confronting me. I had so many dreams, I believed that I could help change the world for the better, but I wasn't sure where to start. Life on campus was growing increasingly chaotic… equal rights for women, the sexual revolution and the war in Vietnam. I was still figuring out where I stood on the issues, but Joe knew exactly where he stood, and that impressed me."

"Did you share his views?"

"Some yes, some no, but we discussed everything…at first. He thought that he could use his law degree to do bring about good, and I believed that as a journalist I could shine a bright light on the issues that mattered to me. When we weren't in classes on separate campuses, we spent stolen weekends together. We'd have such a good time together and we felt as though our whole lives were ahead of us, but one Friday night changed everything dramatically. I don't regret all that I did that night, but I do regret some of the choices that I made after it."

T.B.C. as soon as real life permits. Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Lee leaned forward imperceptibly, his appetite for the food before him was eclipsed by his hunger to finally learn what was at the crux of the failure of Amanda's marriage. Generally, she enjoyed having his undivided attention, but she suddenly found having his intense hazel eyes focused on her somewhat unnerving. She tilted her head slightly, looked down at the blanket, and then met his unwavering gaze.

"I can't believe that I said that, it sounded so…melodramatic, like a passage out of one of Mother's romance novels. It was the first time that Joe-"

"Ahh, Amanda," Lee interrupted, pulling at the neckline of the sweater he was wearing. "I don't think that I want to hear about your first time with-"

"Good grief," she exclaimed, resisting the urge to laugh at his obvious discomfit with the turn their conversation had taken. "The night I was going to tell you about was hardly our first time together, it was far from it."

"Ooh." She watched him process this knowledge, as many of the preconceived ideas he'd had about her past were being challenged and replaced by facts.

"The night that I was going to tell you about was in 1972, three years after Joe and I met, but if you'd rather not hear about it…" _The balls in his court now, he said that he wanted to learn all about me, let's see if he's really ready for that._

"I'm sorry, I do want to hear whatever it is that you're willing to share with me, I'm finally realizing that you're far more complicated than I ever imagined."

She cocked her head, and looked at him, with an unreadable expression on her face. He was becoming painfully aware that if he didn't choose his words carefully, he might scuttle any chance he might have of building a future with her.

"I'm not just a divorced mom from the suburbs, I know that's all you and Francine-"

"Hey-" She held up her hand, her irritation at his interruption was plain to see, so he silenced himself.

"Don't you dare deny that is how you saw me, at least initially, you aren't entirely at fault, I blame myself as well. I let her takeover my life."

"Her?" His head was swimming, but she was on an emotional roll, finally giving voice to feelings that she'd been repressing for years. It was his turn to be the one to listen and follow along as best he could while she plunged on.

"Yes, her, the young woman who agreed to become Amanda King that night even though she'd been avoiding taking that step for over a year."

"Uh, Amanda, you're making it sound as if there are two-"

"I know there's only one, we found out how dangerous it can be when there are two Amanda Kings running around."

The image of Amanda and her double, Karen Brinkman, dangling from the roof of a building under construction, sprang unbidden to both their minds. Determined to not allow reliving the trauma of that moment to derail their current conversation, she attempted to explain her feelings more clearly.

"Please let me tell you what happened that night without anymore interruptions. I know you might feel as though I'm rambling, but sometimes I make the most sense when I just let myself go."

He rewarded her statement with an encouraging smile and nod of his head, while bracing himself for what he was about to hear.

"Joe phoned me at the sorority house late on a Friday afternoon, two weeks before I graduated from U.V.A.. I hadn't been planning to see him that weekend, I had special plans of my own, but he asked me to come to where he was staying because he needed to see me. He wouldn't tell me why…and I didn't want to go, but he didn't sound like himself so I was worried about him and agreed to his request. I borrowed a friend's car and drove two hours to get to him. When I got there, it was obvious that he'd been crying, and that scared me even more. He told me that Ronnie, a childhood friend of his, had been killed in Vietnam. Joe and I had spent a lot of time with Ronnie and his fiancée, Lisa, before he enlisted. The news hit me as if a ton of bricks had fallen on me. He wasn't the first friend that we lost over there, the war had been raging for years by then, but it had never been anyone so close before."

The expression on her face was so sad that Lee imagined that she was reliving the loss all over again. They sat silently as they both thought about the friends, and in his case comrades, that had died in that far off conflict. Straightening her shoulders, she visibly attempted to shake off her melancholy mood by continuing her narrative.

"I went with him to pay our respects to Ronnie's parents and Lisa. They were heartbroken and we couldn't think of anything to say to lessen their pain. I felt useless as I returned to Joe's room with him. We talked, and drank more than I was accustomed to. We made love, and I woke up hours later to find him looking at me more intently than he'd ever done before. I tried to look away, I knew what he was thinking…I don't know what made me think that braking eye contact with him would slow him down…it didn't."

" _Amanda, I love you."_

" _I love you too, Joe."_

" _Will you marry me?"_

" _We've been through this before, I'm not ready to take this step yet, we have our whole lives ahead of us-"_

 _"Do we really? That's what Ronnie and Lisa thought."  
_

" _Don't go there, Joe, our situation is different, you're safe here in Virginia."_

"None of us get a guaranteed life span. I love you; I want to share my life with you. Is that wrong?"

"No, I'd like to be your wife, but not tomorrow."

" _I can accept that, you've made me so happy. I promise that I won't put anymore pressure on you."_

"I believe that he meant to keep his promise, but by the next morning I was already starting to slowly cede my dreams for the future in favor of his."

As she'd been speaking, Amanda was focusing on Lee's face and failed to notice that he'd begun to clench and unclench his left hand as she related her conversation with Joe to him.

"He had no right to take advantage of you when-"

"Whoa, you're making it sound as though I wasn't a grown woman who was fully capable of making my own decisions, I was twenty-one."

"Twenty-one isn't all grown up, you said yourself that you were still struggling with figuring out what you wanted out of life."

"That's it exactly," she stated emphatically.

"Now, you've completely lost me…" He cocked his head in her direction, as though he might be able to understand her better if he studied her countenance more closely.

"Part of me wanted to continue to embrace the values of the fifties sitcoms that I grew up watching in reruns, but I was also tempted to chase after the new opportunities that women coming of age in the early seventies were tantalized by. Joe, his parents, and Mother and Daddy all made sticking with the status quo seem very appealing."

Her shoulders slumped momentarily. Lee felt that he was watching her struggle under the weight of the enormity of the choices she had made.

"I never imagined that accepting Joe's proposal would change my life so quickly. I thought that I'd have time to live on my own for a while, establish myself as a journalist, but pursuing that course was kind of scary. I was young and in love…and I chose to follow the easier path. Within a year, I was married and a mother…and you know the rest. Amanda West was gone, not to be heard from again until you rescued her in that helicopter."

Lee believed that he was keeping up with her until that point, when he could no longer remain silent.

"Helicopter? What helicopter?"

"The helicopter that you forced me to fly when I tried to save you from Mrs. Welch and her goons, I was terrified, I thought that we were going to die, but you believed that I could fly that chopper and I did. I'd never been so scared before…and I'd also never felt so incredibly alive. It was an intoxicating feeling! I haven't been able to go back to simply living Amanda King's 'normal' suburban existence since that day and I don't want to."

She'd satisfied some of his curiosity about her marriage, but he'd never expected her story about her past to connect to the first case they'd worked together. She was now studying him expectantly, waiting for him to say something, as he carefully considered how to move their relationship forward…slowly.

SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK SMK

Author's note: Thanks for sticking with this story so far, there is one more chapter to come.

I'd like to offer a shout-out to Lanie for putting together a terrific website, 4247 Maplewood. It contains a very comprehensive writer's resource section. I've found it very helpful, but I am entirely to blame if there are any canon errors in my stories.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: I apologize for the delay in posting the conclusion to this story. I've been dealing with real life issues, and a major bout with writer's block. Thank you for your patience!

He was, without question, the most infuriating person she knew. She'd just poured out her heart to him, confided the details of what had led to her failed marriage and some conclusions she'd come to concerning her future, and he was simply sitting there not offering a single comment. He'd never been shy about offering her his opinions in the past, they were frequently unsolicited- and often concerned things that she frankly felt were none of his business.

She was fairly certain that he'd been on the brink of responding to what she'd just told him. He'd been looking directly at her, a serious expression on his face, when a ball suddenly came to rest on the blanket between them with a thud. She picked it up, and turned around in time to see two preschool age children rushing towards her with their father in hot pursuit. After returning the ball, and briefly conversing with the trio, she'd turned back around to find Lee chomping on a fried chicken drumstick.

She helped herself to a piece of chicken, and began eating it, confident that he would say whatever he'd been about to say before they were interrupted as soon as he polished off his drumstick. Much to her dismay, he complimented her on her cooking skills, and helped himself to more food. Unlike him, she could barely swallow the chicken that she was nibbling on; her mouth was suddenly feeling incredibly dry. She reached out for the condensation soaked thermos that sat between them, but it tilted over before her slightly shaking hand got a firm grasp on it.

"Let me give you a hand with that," Lee offered, as he righted the thermos and wiped it down with a napkin. He filled a plastic cup with lemonade and passed it to her.

"Thank you." She offered him a brief smile, before hastily breaking eye contact.

"Amanda, are you okay?" He eyed her speculatively. "You seem kind of…ahh…tense."

"Am I okay," she sputtered, causing the contents of her cup to slosh dangerously close to the rim. "You think I seem tense, huh?"

"A little bit," he replied awkwardly. He swiped a hand through his slightly sweaty hair, as he considered what might be troubling her.

"I've got good reason to be tense, I just confided in you, thoughts and feelings that I haven't shared with anyone else, which I'm still grappling with myself, and how do you respond? No, don't answer that question, I could see that you were on the brink of saying something, but then you just started stuffing your face, why didn't you say what you were thinking?"

"I didn't want to say the wrong thing, and I decided that having a mouthful of food was preferable to risking putting my foot in my mouth yet again."

"Oh, Lee, there is no 'wrong thing' to say, we won't have much of a future if you don't feel free to tell me what you're feeling." She put down her cup, and gently stroked the hand he had resting on the blanket. "I wish that I had said what I was thinking, and feeling, more often in the past. If I had, than it wouldn't have taken me so long to get myself back on track. I know what I want out of life, and I'm not afraid to pursue my dreams anymore."

"I've never known you to give into your fears." He entwined his left hand with her right hand. "It's ironic, every time that I tried to warn you that a situation was dangerous and that you should stay at a safe distance- I might as well have been waving a red flag in front of a bull." He offered her a dimpled grin, and she couldn't help but laugh at his comment.

"You need me by your side, I'm not going anywhere, we're partners. Where you go, I go and where I go-"

"I can't follow, I wish that I could, and I'm trying to understand why I may never be able to. On some level, you recognized that you weren't on the right path and you began to follow your heart again, but I didn't and now it's too late for me."

"It's never too late to pursue your dreams, and I can't think of anyplace that I can go to that you can't go as well."

"I can, and it's a very important place in your life."

"You mean the house?" She tilted her head and gazed at him, truly surprised by where his concerns seemed to rest.

"It's not just a house, it's the home that you share with your family, and you've made it very clear to me that I'm not welcome-"

"That's not true," she interrupted him, even though in her heart she knew that she was guilty of sending him very mixed signals. Stung by how easily she appeared to be dismissing his observation, he slowly let go of her hand.

"Pardon me," he said, waving his hand theatrically. "Let me clarify, I'm welcome to lurk in your backyard like a prowler, and you'll sneak me into the house if you're home alone, but…"

His voice faded, as he realized that he'd allowed himself to begin to openly express his fears about the limitations of their growing relationship. _I told her that I was happy being a loner, and I meant it then._ _Liar_ , he scolded himself, _I wasn't happy back then and she could see it, even if I didn't have the guts to let myself acknowledge how I was really feeling._ He leaned back against the tree trunk, looking past Amanda, wondering if he could ever fit into her world.

"I'm sorry, you're right, I have gone out of my way to keep you away from my family…except for when I expected you to risk your life to protect them. She hung her head guiltily, as she felt his eyes return to her.

"I've never minded protecting them, they're your family…and I've come to feel as though I know them. That must sound silly-"

"No, it doesn't, what's silly is that I've introduced other people with ties to the Agency to my family while I've made you feel so unwelcome. We've been friends for a long time now, and I would have introduced any other friend to my family much sooner."

"I'm not like your other friends." His voice was warm, and she dared to hope that she could blend the two lives she'd been living into one.

"You aren't like anyone I've ever known, but that isn't a bad thing, and I wish that I'd never made you feel as though it was. I'd like to introduce you to Mother and the boys. If it's okay with you, I'd like to introduce you as a friend first, I don't think they're ready for anything more yet."

"That's fine with me, that's all that I'm ready for, this is all new to me."

"We can start out with baby steps. Why should we change the pace of our relationship now?"

Her stomach growled loudly before he could reply, so they both laughed and returned their attention to the food before them. They were back on the right track, and for the moment that was enough to satisfy both of them.


End file.
